Finally I am ready to just dig myself out of this rut and start getting my cook-writer hat on again!

New York and New Jersey is the place that I now call home. Now that it’s summer and Farmers’ Market abound on different days of the week, I am blessed with boundless access to bounty that in previous life was pretty hard to come by reasonably.

Today I am going to share with you a dish that I’ve made several times since 2012. I saw Michela Chiappa made it in their BBC Channel 4 “Simply Italian” program back then and was very happy to learn just how easy it is to make your own fresh pasta. Now the cook show is history, but the learning could still and definitely should be put to good use.

I was able to obtain fresh organic bounty of spinach bunch and sage at one of the nearby Farmer’s Market, and once again my Atlas pasta maker is out of storage!

Without further ado, here is Lasagne Verdi with Sage + Walnut Pesto for your enjoyment.

Place the spinach in a medium sized pan with a splash of water and heat on a medium-low heat. Place the lid on top and cook the spinach for 3-5 minutes until wilted. Remove the spinach from the pan and place in a colander, then allow to cool and carefully squeeze all the water out of the spinach. Once the water is all out of the spinach place into a food processor and whizz quickly. If your don’t have a food processor, then finely chop it.

To make the spinach dough, add the flour, 2 eggs and spinach to a large bowl, mixing well to combine all the ingredients. If the dough is too dry add the final egg, yolk first, then white, mixing between additions to ensure all ingredients are well combined and to avoid the dough becoming too wet (I’ve always used 3 eggs whenever I make this). Once the dough has come together transfer to a floured surface and begin kneading with your hands until you have a play-dough texture. If your dough is still crumbly (too dry) add a teaspoon of olive oil. If the dough sticks to your hands (too wet) add a little extra flour. Cover with cling film and rest for 30 minutes. This is the ideal time to make your pesto and béchamel.

To make your pesto: whizz all your ingredients together in a food processor. Ideally you need your paste to be to a consistency that can be spread easily over the pasta. You may need to add more oil to get it to this consistency (I added about ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil).

To make the béchamel sauce, get a large non-stick saucepan and place on a medium- low heat with the butter. Once melted whisk in the flour to form a paste, then slowly add the milk bit by bit, continuously whisking until thickened. Add your parmesan and season to taste, then put to one side until ready to layer up the lasagne. Don’t worry if your béchamel goes cold.

Once the dough is rested, take tennis ball-sized amounts of the dough and squash it flat with your fingers (remember to keep the rest of your dough covered with the cling film so it doesn’t go dry and crusty). Take your flattened tennis ball-sized piece of dough and push it through the pasta roller on the widest setting. Fold into thirds, then repeat 3 times. Once you have a rough square shape, start working it through the machine, taking it down one setting at a time, until the last but one setting (the maximum on Atlas pasta maker is 7, but I always stop at 6). If your pasta is too sticky, it won’t go through smoothly, so add a little flour to each side before you put it through the roller.

Cut the pasta into strips which will fit your lasagne tray, approximately 30cm in length. Keep your sheets of pasta on a tray on a clean cloth to prevent them sticking.

All of the above can be prepared several hours before making your lasagne. Just remember to keep your strips of fresh pasta laid out individually under plastic wrap so they don’t stick together or dry up.

When you’re ready to cook your lasagne, preheat the oven to 180°C/350 F. Make sure you are using an ovenproof dish (we suggest one that is about 6 cm deep and rectangular in shape) and always start with a layer of béchamel or a layer of pesto at the bottom to stop the pasta burning. Then layer in this order: pasta layer (overlap the strips of pasta by 1cm but try not to let the pasta curl up the sides of the dish. The pieces can be cut to fit), pesto layer (1½ heaped tablespoons), béchamel layer (2 heaped tablespoons), mozzarella layer (scatter 1 handful evenly over the layer) and parmesan layer (1 handful sprinkled evenly over the layer). Repeat the above until you have completed 5 layers.

To garnish the lasagne, brush the sage leaves with some olive oil and arrange on top, then bake the lasagne for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden and bubbling slightly. Leave it stand for about 5-10 minutes before serving.

Michela Chiappa’s tips:

This lasagne can be done with normal plain pasta dough or even dried lasagne sheets if you are in a rush, although the green colour of the pasta does make it extra special. If so, ensure that the béchamel is runnier to give extra moisture to the dish when it is cooked and to make sure it doesn’t dry out

Try and get your pasta strips to be at least the length of your ovenproof dish and about 12cm wide; however this is simply to make your layering easier

The pasta doesn’t need to be very thin – it can be rolled to the second from last setting on the roller, or about 3 playing cards thick.

When you roll your pasta out, you can either store it on trays with a layer of cling film between each layer to stop them sticking, or hang it on coat hangers or a clothes horse. The main aim is not to let the pasta strips touch each other, otherwise they will start sticking and break apart when you try to separate them

We recommend you blanch your pasta in boiling water before layering; to do this, put the individual strip of pasta into boiling water for approximately 30 seconds (this does depends on how thick your pasta is but usually 30 seconds to 1 minute max). It should still have a bite to it but should be softened. Once blanched, dip them into cold water to stop them cooking and spread them on a clean tea-towel to get rid of the excess moisture.

If you have any leftover pesto, put it in a jar and cover it with olive oil to seal it. It will keep in your fridge for months and is great over a plate of pasta.

If you have any left over pasta, cut them into long ‘tagliatelle’ strips, air-dry them for 24 hours, then store in an air-tight container to be used at a later date.

Remember, green pasta doesn’t taste of spinach – the spinach simply dyes the pasta. A great way to get your kids to eat some greens!

Some sneak peak on what are featured on the menu: our beloved Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes – made with 100% whole wheat flour, banana, cocoa and carob. Decadent, yet healthy in every way.

Fresh ricotta cheese made by she of the Orange Pot:

As a reminder please note the below regarding pick-up and drop off:

Pick up: between 5 – 7 pm at MyOrangePot.com HQ in Yoyogi 4-chome (4 minutes walk from Sangubashi station or 30 seconds walk from Yoyogi 3-chome bus stop). Pick-up address will be informed when your order is confirmed

Drop off: between 7:15 – 7:45 pm. We will meet you at the JR Yoyogi Yamanote/Sobu line West gate

A friendly reminder: our last service for this first quarter in 2015 is Thursday, February 26. Until then I will post the weekly menu to www.myorangepot.com on Sundays in the morning and hope to hear from you by noon on Tuesdays.

Many of you have expressed interest in subscribing to a mailing list for the menu. Please kindly provide your e-mail address to myorangepot@gmail.com.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation when you have a group of people coming over to your house with different dietary restrictions – halal, vegetarian, vegan, kosher, no red meat, no seafood, no vinegar, no this no that? Okay, I have never had all the aforementioned restrictions all in one go, but I often find 2-3 combos at once. In the past, as most host would try to do, I end up making too many things to cater for everyone or stick to one type of restrictions that is most encompassing.

Recently I have switched my thinking owing to the many hotel buffet tables that I’ve frequented in the past 3 months. For the record, I don’t normally go for buffet food. In my opinion they’re always a touch too cold (for warm dishes), or too warm (for cold cuts), food’s been cooked way too long until we get to them, or spicing is too blend (because you cook in large bulk). However it is not all bad, in fact there are some amazing buffet tables that I’ve grown to love, such as the excellent food provided by The Oriental Hotel in Kobe, or the amazing spread at Park Hyatt Tokyo’s New York Grill, or The French Kitchen at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo. They always have a little bit of everything and you can just pick the foods you want and combine it the way you like, and you have the food that is perfect for your dietary restrictions.

This is finally how I came to today’s recipe. In the spirit of being versatile at the dinner table, I have since concluded that pizza is the way to go when you have a complicated combo of dietary restrictions. You can easily make the base and put toppings that strikes your fancy. I had a non-meat eater visiting a couple of nights ago, while I wanted to use up the beef pepperoni. Made the pizza base and pizza sauce as Jamie O would do and go crazy with the topping as it strikes your fancy!

In a large bowl combine all the flours and sea salt, whisk it so it is well distributed

In a glass container, add yeast and sugar into the lukewarm water and let sit for about 4-5 minutes until the yeast looks activated

On a clean surface, pile the flour mix and make a 10 cm well in the centre. Add the yeast-sugar-water mixture into the well, then using a fork and a circular movement, slowly bring in the flour from the inner edge of the well. Continue to mix until all the flour is incorporated.

When it becomes too hard to mix with fork, flour your hands and begin patting the mix into a ball. A kitchen scraper can also be useful in helping you bring the dough together. Knead the dough by rolling backward and forward, using your left hand to stretch the dough toward you and your right hand to push the dough away at the same time. Repeat for 10 minutes or until you have a smooth, springy, soft dough.

Flour the top of the dough and cover in plastic/glad wrap. Let it sit for about 15-30 minutes at room temperature.

Afterward you can cut the dough into many small balls or several big balls. This recipe is approximately half of what Jamie O makes in the linked recipe, so I typically divide this into 3 balls.

Apologies for the delay, but here’s the second recipe I promised for asparagus celebration.

Jamie Oliver’s recipe bank is almost always my first go to place in search of inspiration for seasonal foods. I have a bunch of his cookbooks – at one point in time I even had all of them, but the man is way too productive to keep up with.

Anyways… one of the repertoire that I use time and time again is his Asparagus, mint & lemon risotto. Following Jamie O’s good nature and attitude towards his cooking, I went ahead using his recipe as a base and adjust as I see fit.

So, what’s different?

For the purpose of risotto, OrangePot pantry NEVER buys arborio rice. Barley is better for health reasons and friendlier to the wallet, too! If I don’t have any barley, then I go with Japanese regular white rice. I recommend leaving brown rice alone. I’ve piddled with making brown rice risotto before, and the result is heavily unsatisfactory.

Lemon and lime are interchangeable. For this recipe I was out of lemon and went with lime instead

Stage 1:
Bring the stock to a simmer in a saucepan. Put the olive oil in a separate large pan, add the onion and celery and cook very gently for about 15 minutes, without colouring, until soft. Add the barley (it will sizzle) and turn up the heat. Don’t let the barley or veg catch on the bottom of the pan, so keep it moving.

Stage 2:
Quickly pour in the wine. You will smell the alcohol immediately, so keep stirring all the time until it has evaporated, leaving the barley with a lovely perfume.

Stage 3:
Add the stock to the rice a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting until it has been fully absorbed before adding the next. Turn the heat down to low so the barley doesn’t cook too quickly and continue to add ladlefuls of stock until it has all be absorbed. This should take about 14 to 15 minutes and give you barley that is beginning to soften but is still a little al dente. Put to one side.

Now put a large saucepan on a medium to high heat and pour in half the stock, followed by all your risotto base and the finely sliced asparagus stalks and the tips. Stirring all the time, gently bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer until almost all the stock has been absorbed. Add the rest of the stock a ladleful at a time until the rice and asparagus are cooked. You might not need all your stock. Be careful not to overcook the rice – check it throughout cooking to make sure it’s a pleasure to eat. It should hold its shape but be soft, creamy and oozy, and the overall texture should be slightly looser than you think you want it.

Add chicken and mix well. Leave the heat on for another 2 minutes.

Turn off the heat, beat in your butter and cheese, mint, almost all the citrus zest and all the juice. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Put a lid on the pan and leave the risotto to rest for a minute. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a scattering of lime zest and a block of Pecorino/Parmesan on the table.

You are probably wondering where the hell I have been and what precisely I was thinking, since I started a blog and immediately went M.I.A.

The answer to that is… a very eventful 2.5 weeks girly road trip with my sister and our beloved friend to (predominantly) USA West Coast! I promise there will be posts related to it at some later date. USA was wonderful and California particularly was a delightful adventure on the palate.

Now that I’m back and moderately over my jet lag, I can begin plotting kitchen-based invention again. After being away for so long, there is nothing that beats the euphoria of having access to your own kitchen and pantry again.

In fond-memory of some pici-making experience at my Aunt’s place in La Jolla last week, I decided that tonight’s dinner should be a blend of East and West. A fusion pasta, or as I’d like to call it… a “fusionasta”! I am going to combine 3 of my favorite Japanese flavors: prawns, umeboshi (pickled plum), and shiso (Japanese perilla leaves).

Fusionasta: Shrimp-Umeboshi-Shiso Pasta

Ingredients

250 gram of fresh strozzapreti (or dried fusilli should work, too, just a little less superior in flavor)

*If you don’t live in Japan where umeboshi and shiso are aplenty, you can find both at a Japanese supermarket or any Asian store that carry Japanese stuff.

** Furthermore, if honey-kishuu umeboshi is not available, then you can substitute with regular umeboshi. Make sure that you get the soft type and add 2 tbsp of honey to the recipe. This recipe will not work with the crunchy version of umeboshi (that is usually served as beer companion).

Directions

Cook pasta according to package direction

While pasta is cooking, on a cast iron skillet heat up the olive oil on high, once hot turn the heat down to medium

Add the garlic into the olive oil, sauté until fragrant (about 1 minute)

Add shrimp and sauté until shrimp turn color. Careful not to overcook.

Lower the heat further until about half of your stove’s medium setting, then add umeboshi meat and mix well. Let it simmer for about 3 minutes.

Add soy sauce and black pepper to the mix. (If you have to go with the regular umeboshi route as described in **, then this will be the time you add honey in)

Check flavoring and correct seasoning (I very rarely need to do it, but this will largely depend on how salty or how much honey the umeboshi has, as most brands vary). Turn off fire.

By this time if your pasta is cooked, then drain in a colander, put aside, reserve about a ladle of the water used to boil the pasta in.

Add pasta and shiso to the pan, mix well with the sauce. If the sauce felt a little dry, then add a little bit of water at a time to the mix to loosen it.

My colleague who is always quite productive in his little patch – came to the office bearing a basket full of produce that he couldn’t take to his Obon holiday place in Oita and said, “Take it away, do what you want with them, just don’t throw them away.”

Looking at the contents of the basket – aubergines, roma tomatoes, bunches of basil, they looked too good not to process. However they’re already looking quite ripen and could not be left in the fridge any longer than 3 days.

What to do? Melanzane alla parmigiano (or in English is known as aubergine Parmesan)!

It was quite a production, because for the first time ever I used 4 Le Creuset items in one go!

First things first: remove the stalks from the aubergines, slice them up into 1cm thick slices, and put to one side. Whether you’re using a griddle pan or a barbecue, get it really hot.

Meanwhile, put 2 or 3 glugs of olive oil into a large pan on a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and dried oregano and cook for 10 minutes, until the onion is soft and the garlic has a tiny bit of colour.

If you’re using tinned tomatoes, break them up, and if you’re using fresh tomatoes (which will obviously taste sweeter and more delicious, if they’re in season), very quickly prick each one and put them into a big pan of boiling water for 40 seconds. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and put them into a bowl of cold water for 30 seconds, then remove the skins, carefully squeeze out the pips and cut up the flesh. Add the tomato flesh or tinned tomatoes to the onion, garlic and oregano. Give the mixture a good stir, then put a lid on the pan and simmer slowly for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, grill the aubergines on both sides until lightly charred – you may have to do them in batches, as they probably won’t all fit into your griddle pan in one go. As each batch is finished, remove them to a tray and carry on grilling the rest until they’re all nicely done.

When the tomato sauce is reduced and sweet, season it carefully with salt, pepper and a tiny swig of wine vinegar, and add the basil. You can leave the sauce chunky or you can purée it.

Get yourself an earthenware type dish (25 x 12–15cm). Put in a small layer of tomato sauce, then a thin scattering of Parmesan, followed by a single layer of aubergines. Repeat these layers until you’ve used all the ingredients up, finishing with a little sauce and another good sprinkling of Parmesan. I like to toss the bread rumbs in olive oil with a little freshly chopped oregano and sprinkle them on top of the Parmesan. Sometimes the dish is served with torn-up mozzarella on top, which is nice too.

Place the dish in the oven and bake at 190°C/375°F/gas 5 for half an hour until golden, crisp and bubbly. It’s best eaten straight away, but it can also be served cold. You can use the same method substituting courgettes or fennel for the aubergines – both are delicious. But do try making it with aubergines – you’ll love it!